Holder for using and tensioning dental floss

ABSTRACT

A dental floss holder dispenses a supply of floss through a radial aperture in a body shaped to rest in the hand, and therefrom through apertures in the end of two forked tines extending from the body and spaced apart enough to present a working length of floss into the mouth. The floss is tensioned by finger pressure against a span of floss across a bow portion between the radial aperture and the end of one tine. The tines are extended far enough from the body and gently curved to facilitate reaching upper and lower teeth without inserting the finger into the mouth.

United States Patent [191 Ensminger Jan. 7, 1975 1 HOLDER FOR USING AND TENSIONING DENTAL FLOSS [76] Inventor: George Ensminger, 2041 Fieldcrest Dr., Owensboro, Ky. 42301 [22] Filed: May 30, 1973 21 Appl. No.1 365,282

[52] U.S. Cl 132/92 A [51] Int. Cl. A6lc 15/00 [58] Field of Search 132/92 A, 91, 90

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,233,687 7/1917 Muchow 132/92 R 1,260,011 3/1918 Muchow 132/92 R 1,700,550 l/1929 Stafford 132/92 A 3,747,611 7/1973 Bennington 132/91 Primary Examiner-G. E. McNeill Attorney, Agent, or Firm--Laurence R. Brown [57] ABSTRACT A dental floss holder dispenses a supply of floss through a radial aperture in a body shaped to rest in the hand, and therefrom through apertures in the end of two forked tines extending from the body and,

spaced apart enough to present a working length of floss into the mouth. The floss is tensioned by finger pressure against a span of floss across a bow portion between the radial aperture and the end of one tine. The tines are extended far enough from the body and gently curved to facilitate reaching upper and lower teeth without inserting the finger into the mouth.

3 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures HOLDER FOR USING AND TENSIONING DENTAL FLOSS This invention relates to teeth cleaning apparatus and more specifically to holders for holding and presenting a working length of dental floss between the teeth.

Prior art dental floss holders have presented several unresolved problems. Desired requirements include sanitation, simplicity, comfort in use, accessibility to all between-teeth positions and achieving enough tautness to scrub away plaque.

Thus, some prior art devices include complicated structures with many nooks and crannies that tend to accumulate bacteria and others require insertion of fingers at least partially into the mouth so that bacteria present for example under a fingernail may become exposed to tissues that are processed by the floss.

Other prior art devices have structure shaped such that it is uncomfortable to have in the mouth or to reach both upper and lower remote between-teeth positions.

Perhaps the most pertinent deficiency of prior art devices is the ability to keep the proper degree of tautness in the working length of floss to be used. Proper cleaning and scrubbing of plaque requires considerable tension in the floss to be maintained during use. Most floss holders have no provision for adjustment of tautness. Even those that do provide tensioning adjusters such as in US. Pat. No. 2,047,456 to G. Barsch, July 14, 1936 only provide for tensioning at the time of presenting a floss working length in position. Furthermore expensive and complex mechanisms may be required for tensioning. Even when so tensioned, the floss in use tends to stretch and the initial tensioning may not be adequate for retaining the tautness over the useful life of the working length of floss without readjustment of a mechanism or restoring a new length of floss.

Accordingly it is a general object of the invention to improve the state of the art of dental floss holders.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide a dental floss holder in which the tension of a working length of floss may be maintained while in use throughout its useful life.

Another object of the invention is to provide a sanitary dental floss holder used to insert a working length of floss between the teeth.

Still other objects of the invention are to provide a dental floss holder comfortable to use and able to reach conveniently remote positions between both upper and lower teeth.

Further objects, features and advantages of the invention are to be suggested by the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a sketch showing the manner of holding in readiness for use the dental floss holder afforded by this invention, and

FIGS. 2 and 3 are respectively edge and top plan views of a holder constructed in accordance with the principles of this invention.

As may be seen from the drawings, the dental floss holder 6 has a body portion 7 adapted to be held in the hand 8 by a body portion 9 with two tines 10, 11 extending therefrom to hold a working length 12 of floss therebetween for use in cleaning plaque between the teeth 13.

The floss is fed from a conventional supply roll 14 radially out through aperture 15, body 7 and through apertures l6, 17 at the end of tines 10, 11 respectively to be fastened at the loose end 18 about the anchor peg 19. The anchor peg may include a knife edge for cutting the floss 20 when pulling out to insert a fresh work ing length 12 between the tines.

The floss 20 spans between apertures 15 and 16 a bow shaped structure 30 so that the working length 12 of the floss may be held taut by pressure of finger or thumb 31 against the floss 20 when the holder is in use as shown in FIG. 1. As shown in phantom the floss position 20 may be attained as a limit where the finger 31 holds it frictionally against the bowed finger rest structure 30, which may have ribs 32 thereon or other friction increasing surface structure if desired.

in use therefore the finger pressure may hold the working length of flux l2 taut without requiring the finger to go inside the mouth, since tines 10, 11 extend from the body 7 and finger rest position 30 far enough to reach the most remote position between either upper or lower teeth.

To facilitate the insertion between both upper and lower teeth on both sides of the mouth, the tines are gently curved toward the bow-shaped side. Therefore the holder may be used with the beak like tine end curved toward the region of use. Since the body portion held in the hand is somewhat symmetrical it may be easily held in either hand and turned over if necessary while reaching for remote between-teeth positions while at the same time adjusting the desired degree of tautness by applying finger pressure.

The holder 6 is made preferably from a sanitary plastic which is stiff enough at the tines l0, 11 so that they may be tapered to small rounded end sections 35 which will be comfortable inside the mouth, take up little room and have few places to accumulate bacteria. The apertures l6, 17 are self cleaning as each new working length 12 of floss is advanced into place.

The standard spool 38 of dental floss may be frictionally held in place by a resilient edge 39 centrally located within the generally circular body portion 7 or fastened by other conventional means.

The general shape of the body 7 and beak portion of extending tines 10, ll permits leverage in manipulating the floss working length 12 in any direction during insertion between the teeth or scrubbing and the apertures l6, l7 confine the floss working portion 12 against radial direction movement toward or away from the body 7 so that it cannot become dislodged or unthreaded when scrubbing pressures are applied from any angle.

Therefore having described the nature of the invention and a preferred embodiment thereof showing the manner of improvement over the prior art, those features believed descriptive of the invention and its scope are defined with particularity in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A dental floss holder comprising in combination, a body holding a supply of dental floss shaped to be held in a users hand and defining a generally radial feed aperture therethrough from which the floss is taken from the supply, a pair of forked tines extending from the body and spaced apart to receive a working length of floss therebetween at the terminal end thereof remote from said body, said tines each defining near the terminal end a feed aperture for threading the floss therethrough and confining movement of said working length in a radial direction toward or away from the body, an anchor member positioned to retain the loose end of the floss when extended from a second of said tines from said supply after passing through said feed apertures, indented bow shaped structure between said radial feed aperture outlet from said body and the feed aperture in a first of said tines holding the floss spanned in position therebetween and extending toward said supply with the floss spanning said bow, and a frictional surface on said bow shaped structure positioned to receive said spanned floss thereupon so that in use as normally held in the hand a finger may press the floss toward said bow shaped structure and into contact with said frictional surface to increase the floss path length between said radial feed aperture and said'feed aperture on the first said tine and thereby the tautness of said floss length between said tines to hold the floss working length between said tines in tension pulling against said anchor as said tines are manipulated into position to insert the floss between teeth and to maintain the floss span between the tines tight by finger pressure while scrubbing the teeth with said floss.

2. A holder as defined in claim 1 wherein the tines extend from said finger rest surface a distance sufficient to reach the most remote positions in the mouth without insertion of the finger into the mouth.

3. A holder as defined in claim 2 wherein the tines are gently curved toward said bow shaped structure to thereby provide structure facilitating entry of said working floss'length between both upper and lower teeth on both sides of the mouth. 

1. A dental floss holder comprising in combination, a body holding a supply of dental floss shaped to be held in a users hand and defining a generally radial feed aperture therethrough from which the floss is taken from the supply, a pair of forked tines extending from the body and spaced apart to receive a working length of floss therebetween at the terminal end thereof remote from said body, said tines each defining near the terminal end a feed aperture for threading the floss therethrough and confining movement of said working length in a radial direction toward or away from the body, an anchor member positioned to retain the loose end of the floss when extended from a second of said tines from said supply after passing through said feed apertures, indented bow shaped structure between said radial feed aperture outlet from said body and the feed aperture in a first of said tines holding tHe floss spanned in position therebetween and extending toward said supply with the floss spanning said bow, and a frictional surface on said bow shaped structure positioned to receive said spanned floss thereupon so that in use as normally held in the hand a finger may press the floss toward said bow shaped structure and into contact with said frictional surface to increase the floss path length between said radial feed aperture and said feed aperture on the first said tine and thereby the tautness of said floss length between said tines to hold the floss working length between said tines in tension pulling against said anchor as said tines are manipulated into position to insert the floss between teeth and to maintain the floss span between the tines tight by finger pressure while scrubbing the teeth with said floss.
 2. A holder as defined in claim 1 wherein the tines extend from said finger rest surface a distance sufficient to reach the most remote positions in the mouth without insertion of the finger into the mouth.
 3. A holder as defined in claim 2 wherein the tines are gently curved toward said bow shaped structure to thereby provide structure facilitating entry of said working floss length between both upper and lower teeth on both sides of the mouth. 